The Baltimore Ravens have created $4.875 million in cap space by restrucutring the contract of star linebacker Roquan Smith, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports.
Before this move, the Ravens were roughly $3.8 million over the cap with all of their contracts on the books. General manager Eric DeCosta noted that he had a plan to become cap compliant by the start of the regular season on Thursday, and this was apparently part of that plan.
"We have some flexibility to make some moves, and we will, in the next probably week, be cap compliant," DeCosta told reporters Thursday. "There's a lot of different things we can do. We've been pretty conservative. I'm blessed to have [vice president of football administration] Nick Matteo, who's a great salary cap guy, and [consultant] Pat Moriarty, who's kind of like a Conciliarity of salary cap guys. We're in good shape upstairs, and we'll have a good plan."
The Ravens are now cap compliant, but just barely. DeCosta understandably likes to have some extra cap space for mid-season trades, and to get that space, he'll have to make some more moves. Maybe another restructure, maybe an extension, we'll have to wait and see.
Smith, 27, has been an absolute monster since arriving in Baltimore at the 2022 trade deadline. In 25 games with the Ravens, the Georgia product has racked up 244 total tackles, 12 tackles for loss and eight passes defended. He's coming off his second-straight first-team All-Pro selection, and even earned some Defensive Player of the Year votes last season.
This season, Smith has a new partner in crime in Trenton Simpson and a new defensive coordinator in Zach Orr, yet his confidence in his defense remains extremely high.
"Honestly, I think every year is different, and every year, each and every team is unique, and this defense is unique in its own way," Smith told reporters Sunday. "[We're] not focused on last year [or] how [former defensive coordinator] Mike [Macdonald] did things, but I'm very excited with 'Z.O.' [defensive coordinator Zach Orr] at the helm and the way he's going to call the game. I have a lot of faith in him, and we're just going to get out there and play our brand of football.
"That's what we're going to do, and at the end of the day, we'll let the chips lay where they lay."
